Chapter One
Day Off
"...the fuck?"
Samantha awoke from her long night of sleeping to find a box at the door of her quarters.
Curious, she stumbled out of her bed, put on her Italian leather fur coat and walked to the
doorway. Chocolates. And with a note addressed to her.
She opened the letter and read through it.
'Good morning, beautiful.' She smiled and continued.
'I hope you enjoy your day off, and I do hope you like the chocolates. Have a great day. - Tom'
Tom Porter, the head technician, was rarely seen outside of Engineering. The few times he
was, he was either heading to his quarters or going out and treating himself to a nice
Italian parmigiana from the ship's replicators.
However, Tom was an extremely shy person when it came to the opposite gender. He only
worked with the male technicians and usually never said a word to the girls, unless there
was a problem.
The few times he had spoken to Sam were on the bridge when giving a status report on
the systems, or in Engineering, explaining what he had done to make the ship better. After
that, he usually disappeared for the rest of the day.
He was a nice guy otherwise, during the small moments he spoke.
The PA blared out a message. "Captain Hopkins, please report to the bridge."
Sam tapped her communicator. "I thought I was having a day off..."
"You are," the speaker replied, "but USEC have a very interesting mission to inform you
about."
USEC, the United Space Exploration Co., were renowned for revoking a crew's freedom
on such short notice.
Sam entered her walk-in wardrobe. Being the captain of an entire starship does have its
benefits.
She unhooked her uniform from the rail and slipped into it. The snug-fitting, deep red
uniform really showed off her raven-black hair, amongst 'other things'. Her tall, thin figure
would get the occasional 'whistle' onboard the Orion.
Exiting her quarters, she strolled casually towards the elevator. She winked at the first guy
who walked by, who stopped and turned. Boys will be boys, she thought to herself.
The elevator doors opened and Sam activated the lift to go to the bridge.
Sam enjoyed watching the lights of the levels go past. They always happened to catch her
attention when she was bored and waiting to get to the elevator's destination.
The doors whirred open and Sam was greeted by an image of Steven MacFarlane, the
Commanding Officer of Sam's squadron, and the CEO of USEC for over thirty years. His
age wasn't obvious, for a sixty-seven year old, he looked fifty.
"Good morning, Sir." Sam saluted her Commanding Officer. "I hear you have a mission for
me."
Even though his looks didn't show his age, his voice did.
